Governor signs order mandating aid to homeless; agencies have questions

A classroom at Capital City Rescue Mission is converted to temporary sleeping quarters for tonight's code blue Friday Nov. 28, 2014, in Albany, NY. Code Blue is a walk-in, emergency homeless shelter that offers a hot meal and a warm and safe place to sleep when temperatures are below 20 degrees or there is significant snowfall. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

A classroom at Capital City Rescue Mission is converted to temporary sleeping quarters for tonight's code blue Friday Nov. 28, 2014, in Albany, NY. Code Blue is a walk-in, emergency homeless shelter that ... more

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed local governments to get homeless people out of the winter cold by will or, if necessary, by force.

The governor signed an executive order Sunday requiring municipalities statewide to get the homeless into shelters when the temperature (including wind chill temperature) drops to 32 degrees or below. If a homeless person refuses to go to a shelter, the order authorizes police to take them off the streets involuntarily.

The order, which takes effect Tuesday, also requires shelters to extend their hours so they remain open at all times when the mercury drops below freezing.

In Sunday morning interviews with downstate media outlets, Cuomo indicated that the state would offer financial assistance to shelters that struggle to meet the new requirements. Liz Hitt, executive director of the Albany-based Homeless and Travelers Aid Society, called the commitment "massive" and likely to need to be "millions and millions" of dollars statewide.

The state already spends $1 billion annually on shelters and homeless services, the governor said, and proposals to combat rising homelessness are expected to be a key part of Cuomo's Jan. 13 State of the State/executive budget address.

"We're going to have safe, clean, decent shelters and that is a statewide mandate that I signed because I believe that's what New Yorkers believe, as a people," Cuomo said in an interview with 1010 WINS. "It doesn't matter if you live in Buffalo, or Albany or New York City, we believe nobody should be left to sleep on the streets."

The order comes as New York City specifically grapples with increasing homelessness. The order refers to "certain parts of the State (that) are facing a crisis of homelessness unprecedented in recent history" but does not single out by name New York City, where the latest battle between Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio has centered on how to reverse the homelessness trend.

Cuomo, the former federal Housing and Urban Development secretary, distanced himself from the politics Sunday, saying homelessness is an issue he has worked on his entire life, not one that he is focusing on now because it is politically expedient in the battle with de Blasio.

Aside from the Cuomo-de Blasio controversy, the order also wades into the controversial idea of forcing the homeless to stay in shelters. While she was laudatory of the order and said it's something "no other state in the union is willing" to do for the homeless, Hitt did express some concern about the mandatory shelter provision.

"If your facility is warm and welcoming, the vast majority will come to you; you won't have to mandate them," she said. "But there are some folks that avoid shelters at all costs, and they have rights, too. Some just don't want to get caught up in what they perceive to be the bureaucracy."

Cuomo's counsel Alphonso David clarified Sunday evening that the order "does not mandate involuntary commitment for competent individuals" and requires cities to conduct "an individualized assessment pursuant" to state mental hygiene law "for those who refuse shelter."

"That is a red herring," David added. "What is lacking in some local systems is either a well managed outreach effort or a habitable shelter system or both. ... (Sunday's) order mandates that outreach system to ensure that we provide shelter to those in need and services to those that need them."

Perry Jones, executive director of the privately run Capital City Rescue Mission, said he believes the order would be effective when dealing with those who are mentally incapable of making the decision to come in out of the cold.

"In Albany proper, most people get in out of (the freezing temperatures)," said Jones, who added that he would seek clarification on why the "inclement weather" bar was set at 32 degrees (Capital City issues a Code Blue warning at 20 degrees; elsewhere it is set at 10 degrees, he said). "The ones that don't get in, nobody would know they are there anyway because they don't just hang out. I've met some woodsmen that they stay out, they don't care. But that's one little minor percentage of 1 percent. Most people get out."

For his part, the governor seemed confident his order is on solid legal footing.

"If there's a challenge to the state law, I will defend it," Cuomo said on WCBS 880. "I will be responsible because it's my edict. A local police commissioner can just say, 'Go sue governor Cuomo; he made us do it.' And if I get sued for keeping people safe, and getting people in from the cold because they were endangering themselves, then so be it. I get sued for a lot of things."

Though December was unseasonably mild, some Capital Region shelters have issued Code Blue warnings due to winter weather. A Code Blue has been issued by the Homeless and Travelers Aid Society for the beginning of the week. Temperatures are expected to hit only 19 degrees during the day Monday and drop to 4 degrees at night. Tuesday's temperatures are forecast to range from 15 to 24 degrees.